Equinox bar manager Peter Grimm prepares the bar for dinner service. The bar has a direct view of the entrance, which means Grimm and his bartenders must also prepare to act quickly if there’s a protest. (Photo by Esther Ciammachilli / WAMU)

Equinox bar manager Peter Grimm prepares the bar for dinner service. The bar has a direct view of the entrance, which means Grimm and his bartenders must also prepare to act quickly if there’s a protest. (Photo by Esther Ciammachilli / WAMU)

On a recent morning in the empty dining room of Equinox Restaurant, co-owner Ellen Kassoff Gray and her managers were sipping coffee and hashing out a plan of action in case protesters were to confront a customer in the high-end restaurant located just a block from the White House.

“If it happens to us, we need to know how to handle this, or at least have some kind of game plan,” says Equinox manager Randy Cole, who requested the meeting. “Because I know that in everybody’s mind who’s a manager here, they probably would think about handling it a little differently.”

Equinox staff are on edge after politics crashed into the dining room at nearby restaurant Fiola in late September. Demonstrators confronted Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife as they sat down to dinner. Similar pop-up protests have taken place not only at restaurants in D.C. and Virginia but even in Kentucky, where Sen. Mitch McConnell was confronted as he left a Louisville restaurant. So, Equinox staff are preparing, just in case.

First, the group agrees that safety is paramount. No one should try to be a hero.

Kassoff Gray points out that Equinox has been serving prominent elected officials for decades, and it’s easy to see them coming.

“I know from 20 years of being here, if there’s a black SUV pulling up out front that somebody’s about to get out. So, I think we have to start to be mindful of that,” she says.

The staff usually snaps to attention when they see these telltale SUVs. Now they must also be alert as to who might follow their passengers into the restaurant.

“First is hostess training because that’s the first line of defense,” Kassoff Gray says. “Whoever’s working that door is the one who really sees what’s going on.”

The group agrees that another way to protect the restaurant’s clients is to honor their privacy. They say staff should refrain from posting to social media or telling friends when high-profile customers come in to dine. The incident involving Cruz occurred after someone alerted protesters about his reservation at Fiola. Kassoff Gray says that is unfathomable at Equinox.

Ultimately, politics and protests don’t belong in restaurants, she says, and Cruz should not have been confronted at the table.

“He is a human being and he has a right to go out to dinner with his wife,” she says.

The confrontation at Fiola has prompted changes there, too. After the incident, owner Fabio Trabocchi says, he hired security. The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington says in a statement that it offers security and safety training for its members.

But not all restaurant owners see a need for precautions. Andy Shallal, owns the Busboys and Poets restaurants, with six locations in the D.C. area. He bills them as a cultural hub for artists, activists, writers, thinkers, and dreamers. Shallal, who considers himself an artist and activist, is known for supporting progressive causes. He says people are welcome to approach elected officials in his restaurants, as long as the encounters remain civil. He says public figures are called that for a reason, and they don’t live in a bubble.

“You chose this route and yes, you should be safe, but certainly people can have the opportunity to say something to you—confront you with their thoughts and their emotions,” Shallal says.

Meanwhile, some restaurant owners are mulling over not just their broad strategy but their own personal response should a controversial figure walk in. At Bread Furst, a bakery and cafe in Northwest D.C., owner Mark Furstenberg says most customers aren’t there long enough for a pop-up protest to take place, so he’s not adding security. But he says there is enough time for him to say a few words to his well-known customers, like praising a journalist for a column he wrote, “or saying to a judge who comes in here, ‘What do you think of that crazy opinion?’ I do have a certain amount of banter with the customers I know.”

Furstenberg says if elected officials he disagrees with were to come into his bakery, he would cordially and succinctly share his thoughts with them too.

“I would say, ‘I want you to know that I really resent and detest what you’re doing to my country. Now, what can I get you,’” he says.

While restaurant owners are strategizing about how to prepare for protests, at least one group insists that politicians in restaurants are still fair game.

“They have to realize that they can’t hide from us, says Lacy MacAuley with Smash Racism D.C., one of the groups responsible for the protest at Fiola. She says protesters may target other officials in the future because there are eyes and ears on restaurants all over the District.

“So when they go out and try to schmooze at a restaurant and try to network at a restaurant, it’s not a safe space,” MacAuley says. “And they’re going to hear from us.”

This story was originally published on WAMU.

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